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0183 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 183 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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CHAPTER LXI

THE GREAT MAGAZINE OF THE LIMES

I CANNOT stop to describe here various interesting minor
finds which rewarded our laborious clearing of all the layers
of ancient débris and refuse on the hillock once occupied by
the Gate station. There were plentiful rags of cast-off
clothing ; remains of iron implements ; well-made shoes in
hemp and other stout materials ; fragments of lacquer bowls
showing tastefully designed scroll ornamentation in black
on red ground—all relics which, insignificant in them-
selves, helped me to picture the life once witnessed by this
important border post (Figs. 172, 174). A reconnaissance
made from this point while the digging was still in progress
had revealed extensive rubbish layers at a point about two
and a half miles northward and at a short distance within
the main line of the Limes ; and thither I moved camp
on the morning of April 24th.

At first sight there was nothing to attract attention to
the spot, and without Tila Bai's keen eyes, which noticed
a slight swelling on the edge of a bare plateau tongue, I
should probably have passed it without heeding. The
gravel-strewn little mound, only about two or three feet
high and less than forty feet across, proved to contain the
débris from some brick-built structure, too much decayed
and too scanty for any determination of its original char-
acter. The dozen and a half of records on wood which we
found in the débris ranged in date from 65 to 137 A.D. At
the time I noted this indication of relatively late occupa-
tion with special interest ; for the ruin lay just within the
corner where the line of the secondary wall above mentioned
would join the main wall, if continued across an impassable
marsh in its direction from south to north.

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